It's been a busy month. Even managed to get a little more done to the Econoline! Being as we had the old heater out and access to the pieces behind the nose, it was decided that this was a good time to repaint some of the "patina" that the van came with. In California the patina may be OK, but in southeast Texas it can quickly become unmanagable! The goal was to preserve what we had, not restore the van. Little to no body work was done and we didn't paint the whole van, just the parts that really needed it!

First step; remove bumpers.

Everything that would unbolt from the front end was removed. The nose had some bad paint from a long ago repair that was dealt with along with some patina on the drivers (my) door.

Then on to the roof, where most of the patina resided!

Next came masking.

Then primer. Remember Lynn, he buffed out the old paint last year!

Then Lynn added a little color.

That's how we left it a little over a week ago. Went on a little vacation, hope to get it back in one piece before heading to the beach Memorial Day weekend. Then back to getting the A/C installed!

Last edited by crowen57 on Sun May 22, 2011 3:50 pm; edited 1 time in total

I bought the A/C from Old Air Products in Fort Worth mainly because they had a bracket for the 240 (which was useless on an Econoline). Being as you are in SA, you should probably drive over to Vintage Air and see what they have to offer. I suggest mounting the condenser under the van with an electric fan to help keep added heat out of the doghouse.

I bought the A/C from Old Air Products in Fort Worth mainly because they had a bracket for the 240 (which was useless on an Econoline). Being as you are in SA, you should probably drive over to Vintage Air and see what they have to offer. I suggest mounting the condenser under the van with an electric fan to help keep added heat out of the doghouse.

Sweet, thanks for the info.

Took me a little while to figure out what Vintage Air was, going to go check them out when my van arrives.

Still had to do the wiring and plumbing on the A/C and finally got around to doing that a week or so ago. Not completely finished, but we have some cool air. Come to find out air conditioning an early window van is akin to trying to air condition a green house! It is unusually hot here in Southeast Texas and I really hate to tint the windows but we'll have to see what transpires. Here's where I'm at now:

Mounted the dryer and ran the hoses:

Tried to make the switches look like they came on the dash originally. I used the old bezels behind the new switches:

The vents will be mounted in the dash skirt once I get it installed. Until new here's what we have:

Not completely done with the install, but good enough for Martha to ride to Arkansas in! Did I mention that it was unusually hot here right now.

I’m not a big fan of window tint myself, but vintage greenhouse vehicles really benefit from it. it’ll make the inside much more comfortable and your a/c will have less of an up hill battle. we have an industrial roll of 3m limo tint, these flat glass windows are real easy for a diy project.

@ Ray and Paul (austinmodhouse): The air blows cold and in the mornings it works great. Problem is when the van has been sitting outside in the afternoon temperatures (near 100 lately). Once the metal inside the van heats up it is hard for the unit to recover. The real test will be driving to Arkansas next week!

I had a/c installed in my 73 bmw 2002tii. I had a similar situation where it would work best when I needed it least. it also was mostly glass and we reluctantly tinted the windows. but when it was real hot outside, the coolish air was an improvement as long as it was blowing right on you, the vents were mounted low in the center console, near the shifter. so really, only half of the driver’s body got a/c benefit. it was not much good for the kids in the back seat. hopefully you will get over the heat hump with highway speed and longer drive times. maybe curtains if you don’t want to tint?

[i]Heres something for all us that wish A/C in our vans. Years back i painted my 56 chev pickup a Yellow color - named fruehauf Yellow-Brightest yellow ive ever seen to date. I was living in south Texas then-yes 100++RF heat and sometimes Humidity - terrible = anyways - This color in high heat days with windows rolled up was at least 20 F cooler inside . Why - refelectivity of the suns rays & heating due only to color. Im still amazed @ this as i still own the truck. Still the same on Hot Days I was always amazed at this. Just my realization on colors & heating.

the reflective properties of lighter colors is right on, but I won’t be painting any of my vehicles yellow any time soon. hey, if it works for you, go for it. I painted my van’s roof white (only horizontal surface it has)

yeah, I realize my avatar has my old yellow van. I didn’t paint it yellow, I rented it to a movie production and it came back to me yellow. they promised me it would “wash off”. maybe yellow vans are a touchy subject for me. :-)